SmedBlog (last year): NPC Enemies and Armies

[Dougnifico]

Originally Posted by Phantomdestiny

i'm more for dangerous fauna and flora than npc armies . My example you are driving on your flash on the indar desert when suddenly a giant worm comes out of the ground and attacks you .

this kind of thing or dangerous flora that fires poison darts at you on hossin . Something that bring atmosphere and life to the environments but no game breaking NPC armies / More Player against environement (to a small scale not huge) and less players against humanoid bots which doesn't bring anything new to the game

See, dangerous flora and fauna is AI I don't think many people would argue against. This is where they need to put AI resources. Then they can see how it works out and go from there.

[MrMak]

Originally Posted by HiroshiChugi

Like the Forerunner technology in Halo 4? xD But seriously, have it be the actual Vanu if anything, so you're not completely copying any games.

Actualy the Ancient guard automatons thing has been around sci fi for a long time. Just like the swarm zerglike alien thing.

So no Halo 4 most certainly did not invent the concept.

Also the VS would never dare fight against the actual Vanu. They would either aempt to ally with them or the conflict would shatter their faith entirely.

[yozzer]

Oh please no, after the experience I had with ai in ArmA where they could see and kill you from the other side of a forest. At least you had the choice if wether or not you wanted to join a server with PvP or PvE, maybe you could start a sever for fanboys of that kind of gameplay but I won't be joining it.

[Gimpylung]

Why is this thread still going.

[Phantomdestiny]

why not ?

[WSNeo]

Originally Posted by Phantomdestiny

why not ?

Because it is a shitty idea and has no place in a PvPvP game like Planetside.

[Badjuju]

Just tell me what days your doing it so I don't have to waste time logging on then logging right back off.

[Badjuju]

Originally Posted by Phantomdestiny

i'm more for dangerous fauna and flora than npc armies . My example you are driving on your flash on the indar desert when suddenly a giant worm comes out of the ground and attacks you .

this kind of thing or dangerous flora that fires poison darts at you on hossin . Something that bring atmosphere and life to the environments but no game breaking NPC armies / More Player against environement (to a small scale not huge) and less players against humanoid bots which doesn't bring anything new to the game

I wouldnt mind this if it was not random. For example, your giant worm existing only in small regions that may act as a short cut between objectives. You can chose the long safe route around, or another route that leaves you playing tremors but saves you time if you survive. Things like that, especially if there are techniques to surviving these "hazard zones."

But that is about as far as I would like to see NPCs go if people insisted they be in.

[Carbon Copied]

Random would just become annoying - if there was continental creatures then there would have to be a point to them or else they're just a gimmick that grows old very fast. Like Badjuju put they have to be risk/reward orientated not an en masse annoying side show that detracts the main game. Thats as far I'd realistically want them implemented if at all.

I think outside the whole PvE though it'd be good to see npcs take some sort of form on the faction's sanctuary/main warp area not necessarily on an interactive level but just enough for that suspension of disbelief.. there's more pressing gameplay things to fix before this makes any form of debut though.

[Hamma]

This was a crazy necro but I'll allow it.. it's always a hot topic and it's interesting to see peoples thoughts.

[GeoGnome]

I have kind of jokingly said that what they need to do, is introduce sandworms and the resource system be tied to hunting and killing a colossal platoon killing monster.

-That- is what the crossbow should be for.

Btw, I'm joking

I would say some creeps would be interesting if they were more controlled, and not simply random encounter challenge obstacles that we occasionally see meandering around one of the continents. Like: Alien Invasion event, that would be interesting.

[VGCS]

Oh good lord.... The Infils in my outfit would be fighting over which one of us gets to 'Jungle'.

This might actually be worse than his ORBITAL STRIKES idea if it was done wrong.
The scary thing is this is exactly the kind of bumbling this man's always done which defies all things good and right in this world and then turns into a huge success for them like Everquest did. It literally takes them a COLOSSAL DISASTER like Galaxies N.G.E. patch to ever completely sink a game with their derptacular design posturing. Did their Pay to Win @ PVE ='s also dominating in PVP, in DCUO sink that game like it should have? Nope... Did releasing PS2 way before it was optimized and stable doom it? Nope not even close.

the ONLY situation this would ever be fair in is if your base is overrun by these outfits with obvious Aimbotters and the PvE army you summon also Aimbots just as blatantly as they are. I'm not even sure how you'd have the server control that? ...I guess have it keep track of those player's burst-fire accuracy and then make he Bots automatically adjust their own botting Accuracy according to the person they're shooting at??

[Chaff]

.
I LOVE how they're talking about ADDING more new things into the game, but it's still so damn Buggy ....... howza bout shuttin' yer Pie Holes until the game works well 95% (at least) of the time.
.

[Nur]

I'm OK with NPC in the case they are NOT giving any XP and just annoy the three factions.

So for example sudden Alien attack



In my opinion they will never implement this, at least in the first years.

Simply there are other priorities

If Aliens are part of the loacl Auraxis fauna and does not give Xps, then could be interesting to be attacked by an Alien ship sometimes or be surprised by an Alien while walking in the desert.

Like local dangerous fauna.

[Booface]

It reminds me of the PvP oriented MMORPG Shadowbane (I think it was called Shadowbane). Anyway, in this game, your guilds (basically outfits) could claim stakes of land and build castles there to gather resources. You designed your castle in every aspect: wall placement, critical structures, etcetera.

If another guild wanted to sack your castle, one strategy they would often undertake is of course to log on and hit it during off-peak hours. Sacking a castle took a long time in this game, because you had to set up siege equipment, breach the walls, and get your guildmates inside, so it wasn't as bad as it sounds. But it was still bad, because by the time you logged on in the morning, you were already at a disadvantage and maybe had lost a lot of valuable buildings.

Anyway, the strategy to counter this was to build guard houses around your castle. These would spawn NPC guards, whose competency was determined by the resources you could pour into them. They weren't going to repel an attack, but they could bog it down. That way, unless you were totally decimated by a much larger guild, your castle could usually survive with fewer defenders during the morning long enough for you to rescue it when your guys logged on after the workday was over.

The only reason it was really desirable, though, was because the castles were player-created and player-owned. We wanted a way to protect our stuff we worked (well, gamed) for while we were logged off.

In a game like PS2, where bases turn over in a matter of minutes and there are few long-term consequences for losing a facility, this kind of mechanic would probably just be really annoying.

On the other hand, if down the road we can create our own permanent facilities and gather outfit-specific resources and benefits from them, then this is something that I think a lot of players might want.